This Week: The Bemidji State University men’s basketball team hosts Winona State University Feb. 20 at 4 p.m. in its final home game of the 2009-10 season. The game will serve as Senior Day for Seth Haake. With 10 minutes left in warm-ups, he will be presented a gift from the coaching staff and a ball commemorating his 1,000th career point.

About Bemidji State: The Beavers are 10-14 overall and 6-11 in the NSIC to hold down the 11th spot in the league. BSU has won three in a row, downing MSU Moorhead (79-75) and Minnesota, Crookston (81-64) on the road and Finlandia University (99-67) in a nonconference game at home. The wins pushed the Beavers to 10 wins on the season, earning their first 10-plus-win season since the 2005-06 squad went 15-13.
• In the three wins, BSU outscored its opponent 86.3-68.7. The Beavers lost their previous four games, getting outscored 91.0-69.3.
• Senior Seth Haake has 1,137 career points. With three games left, he is 54 points shy from cracking BSU’s top-10 career points list. For his career, Haake is 50.9 percent from the field and 43.2 percent from the 3-point line.
• Freshman Lance Rongstad is averaging 13.8 points per game in conference this season, which is second among freshmen.
• BSU is 4th in the nation in free throw percentage at a 76.7 clip.

About Winona State: The Warriors are 17-7 overall and 11-6 in conference play to hold the fourth spot in the standings. WSU is 3-2 in its last five contests, losing its last game 82-81 at Augustana. Winona State is 7-2 on the road this season and 8-3 away from the McCown Gymnasium. Senior David Johnson leads the team and the conference in points per game with 20.0, sitting 32nd in the nation. Junior Ben Fischer has 9.4 points and a conference-leading 7.68 assists per contest that puts him third in the nation.

Series History: The Beavers are 67-80 all-time against WSU. BSU is 1-4 in the last five meeting, winning the last contest earlier this season in the Winona by the score of 88-87 in overtime.

Last Action: The Beavers picked-up its 10th win of the season Tuesday with a 99-67 win against Finlandia University in a nonconfernce contest.

Feb. 16 - vs. Finlandia: The Bemidji State University men’s basketball team picked-up its 10th win of the season Tuesday at the BSU Gymnasium with a 99-67 win against Finlandia University. The last time BSU surpassed the 10-win mark was the 2005-06 season.
The Beavers (10-14, 6-11 NSIC) shot a season-high 63.5 percent from the floor and 58.3 percent from 3-point land. Six BSU players scored in double-figures, led by senior guard Seth Haake’s (Eden Prairie, Minn.) 22 points, his eighth game this season with 20-plus points. He also added five steals and five rebounds. Freshman Burke Lendl (F, St. Michael, Minn.) started his fifth consecutive game and scored a career-high 17 points, going 5-of-6 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line, all of which tie or establish his career-highs. He added a team-high six rebounds. Freshmen David Berthene (F, Lakeville, Minn.) and Mason Walters (G/F, Milton, Wis.) each tallied 14 points, which tied a career-high for Walters. Berthene added five rebounds and three assists, while Walters went 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. Freshmen Lance Rongstad (G, Eleva, Wis.) and Noah Shepherd (G, Minneapolis, Minn.) scored 12 points, establishing a career-high for Shepherd, who was perfect from all over the floor, 4-of-4 from the field and 2-of-2 from beyond the arc and the free throw line.
Sophomore guard Bryce Tesdahl (Crosby, Minn.) only scored four points, but dished-out 10 assists in 22 minutes of play. That mark is the second time this season he has surpassed 10 assists in a game and is tied for ninth on BSU’s single game assists chart. His 118 assists this season is seventh on BSU’s season list and the 203 career assists sits eight on the school’s all-time list. The Beavers had 22 assists, creeping past 20 assists for the fourth time this season, moving to 4-0 when accomplishing the feat. All eight active players saw at least 20 minutes on the court, including freshman Jon Krebs (G, Mahtomedi, Minn.) who surpassed his career-high in minutes played with 21. Junior forward Patrick Cassidy (St. Paul, Minn.) did not play due to an injury suffered Feb. 13 against University of Minnesota, Crookston. BSU had 42 rebounds, the most since Jan. 8 when it matched that total against Concordia University, St. Paul.
The Beavers started the game slow, going down 4-8 three minutes into the game. The Lions were able to maintain the lead or stay tied through the first seven minutes, owning a lead as large as four at 12-16 with 14:27 remaining. The Beavers then rattled-off nine unanswered points to take a five-point lead with 12:03 left in the half. Haake had five points in the stretch. Finlandia ended the run with a lay-up to make the score 21-18, but BSU continued to roll and posted a 10-2 run to take its first double-digit lead of the game at 31-20 with 9:46 left in the frame. During that run, Walters had five points and Shepherd knocked-down a 3-pointer, with Haake adding a couple of free throws. The road team would go on to score just seven points for the remainder of the half and the Beavers continued to shoot lights-out. By halftime, BSU owned a 51-27 lead.
Bemidji State must have had the heat cranked-up in the locker room because they came out just as hot as they were in the first half, taking the first four minutes of the frame to increase the lead to 30. The advantage reached its peak at 39 after a Haake lay-up with 9:22 left. Soon after, the Beavers went with all freshmen on the floor. Those freshmen put on a show, getting a dunk from Berthene and Shepherd on back-to-back possessions. The young five maintained the 30 point lead for the rest of the half, en route to the 32-point victory.

NSIC Preseason Poll: The Bemidji State men’s basketball team is ranked ninth in the 2009-10 edition of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll, receiving 89 points. The Beavers are coming off a year where they finished tied for 10th in the NSIC with a 6-14 record.

NSIC Preseason Player to Watch: Senior guard Seth Haake (Eden Prairie, Minn.) played and started in all 27 games for the Beavers in 2008-09, leading the team in points (13.9 p/g), rebounds (4.7 r/g), minutes (30.4 m/g) and steals (1.7 s/g), while finishing second on the team in assists (2.0 a/g). His 13.9 points per game was the most by a Beaver player since 2003-04 and ranked 12th in overall scoring in the NSIC. Haake earned his first career NSIC Player of the Week award after leading BSU in a 3-0 week, Jan. 6-10, which included wins over Dickinson State, Concordia University and St. Cloud State. He averaged 20.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and shot 60 percent from the floor in the three games. In NSIC play he averaged 13.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.25 assists and shot .526 from the floor. Haake had a team-high 20 games in double-figures in scoring, including six games with over 20 points.

Bowen in Season Openers: Head coach Matt Bowen earned his first victory in season openers in his four seasons at BSU on Nov. 20. The Beavers defeated College of the Ozarks 60-54 at the Viterbo University Pepsi Tournament.

Grand Accomplishment: With a free throw with 4:38 remaining in a 71-69 win Jan. 23 against Minnesota Duluth, senior Seth Haake scored his 1,000th point of his career. He is the first Beaver to accomplish the feat since All-America selection Charles Hanks did so from 2001-04. He has 1,137 career points. With three games left, he is 54 points shy from cracking BSU’s top-10 career points list.

Making his mark on the NSIC: Haake has 849 career points in NSIC play to rank 16th on the conference’s career scoring chart. He joins Hanks (5th, 1,021) and David Lee (1984-88, 14th, 854) as players from BSU represented on the list.

Making Strides: Head coach Matt Bowen has increased BSU’s win total every season over his past four years. The Beavers won five games in his first campaign, then six in his second and eight in 2008-09. This season, BSU has 10 wins with three games remaining. The six NSIC victories the Beavers have totalled this season matches the 2008-09 team for the most conference win under Bowen.

Double-digits: The Beavers have won 10 games this season, their first double-digit win mark since the 2005-06 team went 15-13.

Two is Better than One: Sophomore Bryce Tesdahl (G, Crosby, Minn.) posted 20 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds in a 88-87 overtime victory against No. 17 Winona State University Dec. 12, posting the first double-double of his career and the first by Beaver in 2009-10. Both the point and assist totals were career-highs and the nine rebounds tied a career-high.

Thanks for the Charity: Tesdahl is 89-of103 from the charity stripe this season, posting a 86.4 percentage from the line that stands fifth in the NSIC and 20th in the nation (as of Feb. 14). BSU is first in the conference (76.7) this season in free throw percentage, standing 4th in the nation.

Helping Hand: With 14.8 assists per game in conference play this season, the Beavers are fifth in the league. Winona State is first at 17.94 apg. Tesdahl has 4.9 assists per game in league games, which is fourth. With 4.9 apg in all games, Tesdahl is third in the league and 55th in the nation (as of Feb. 14). Tesdahl has 118 assists this season to stand 7th on BSU’s top season assists list. His 203 career assists ranks 9th on BSU’s career list (1976-present).

Andrew Jackson: Senior Seth Haake scored in the 20’s four consecutive games Dec.12-Jan. 2, pouring in a then season-high 27 against Northern Michigan Dec. 29. He scored 23 against UMD Jan. 23 for his fifth and posted 26 in a loss to Concordia University, Feb. 5 for his sixth. With a career-high 30 against MSUM Feb. 12, he posted is seventh 20-plus and first 30-plus point performance of the season His eighth came against Finlandia University, Feb. 16, when he scored 22.

National Ranking: In the NCAA national ranking summary from games thru Feb. 14, BSU is 4th in free throw percentage at a 76.4 clip. The Beavers are also in the top 63 (270 ranked) in, field goal percentage (52nd, 47.5 percent), turnovers per game (59th, 13.5 tpg) and assist to turnover ratio (63rd, 1.08 ratio). Sophomore Bryce Tesdahl is 20th in free throw percentage at a 87.9 mark and stands 55th in assists per game with 4.7 per contest. He is also 59th in assist to turnover ratio with a 2.04 mark. Senior Seth Haake is 60th in field goal percentage with a 54.5 mark and is 73rd in points per game with 18.0 ppg.

Young Look: The Beavers’ active roster of 10 student-athletes consists of six true freshman, with only two upperclassmen. That makes 80 percent of the roster underclassmen. Last season, head coach Matt Bowen and his staff had to deal with 75 percent of the roster as underclassmen. In his first season (2006-07) Bowen inherited a team that had 7-of-12 (58%) players as upperclassmen. His second year balanced out at 52 percent underclassmen and 48 percent upperclassmen.

Work Horses: Four of the regular starters for the Beavers have logged at least 25.8 minutes per game in conference play this season, placing three of them in the top 30 in the conference rankings for minutes per game. Freshman Lance Rongstad has logged the second most minutes by a freshman this season with 28.5 minpg.

It’s Been a Long Time: The Beavers earned an NSIC road sweep, Feb. 12-13, for the first time since the 2004-05 season. BSU defeated MSU Moorhead 79-75 before traveling to Minnesota, Crookston and winning 81-64. Senior Seth Haake scored a career-high 30 points to guide the Beavers to victory against the Dragons, then freshman Lance Rongstad (27) and sophomore Bryce Tesdahl (22) posted career-highs against the Golden Eagles.